Ron Moore on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'

Writers conducted surveillance, says Ron Moore, describing his time in the Hart building where Star Trek writers were housed.

Speaking via his new blog, Ron Moore posted some of his memories of working on TNG. He decided to share the memories while they were still fresh in his mind. "I've been thinking a lot about my early days at Star Trek," he explained. "Maybe it's because the newest film in the franchise has begun shooting, or maybe it's because I'm just getting up there in years and starting to think back on ye olde glory days."

Moore went on to open a window into the working life of the writers who worked on TNG. "The Hart Building was the only place where the writers of Next Gen were housed (or confined, depending on how you looked at it)," he began. "No other production offices were located in the building, which loomed over the Paramount dining room and commissary, nor were any other members of the production especially eager to enter the premise since the comings and goings into our building were easily monitored from the windows and balcony of the vaguely Stalinistic structure of the facing Cooper Building directly across the way, and visiting the writers was something that was very much frowned upon from on high." He explained further that the Cooper building was the home of the central offices for the production and where one had to go to seek money or approvals. "There was something about climbing the steep staircase to the second floor of Cooper that seemed to suck the joy out of your day as you prepared to do battle of one form or another upon entering the soulless conference room or the corner office of the Executive Producer," explained Moore.

Several writers discovered that one could tell which page of a script was being discussed using a pair of binoculars," said Moore. "This led to covert gatherings whenever we knew that Michael Piller had been summoned for a 'Rick Meeting.' We would crowd the window and trade the two pair of binocs usually at hand to get the perfect view of the script in question." Those peering through the binoculars would sometimes see script notes and would try to figure out what was happening in the meeting. The surveillance went on for several months until Rick Berman's office was renovated and shutters were added to the windows, closing out visual access.

Moore went on to talk about his place of work in more detail. To read more of his memories, go to the blog entry, located here.